Disability advocates need to help their clients stay informed and navigate the complexities of the new NDIS to make sure no one misses out, those attending a recent DARU forum were told.
About 30 people from the disability sector across Victoria took part in the Disability Advocacy Resource Unit (DARU) Advocacy Sector Conversations Forum this month.
As well as hearing valuable sessions on building partnerships, developing advocacy and taking part in a Q&A with people from the Office for Disability, participants were given valuable advice in the opening session on safeguarding the rights of people with a disability during the roll-out of the NDIS.
NDIS Victoria policy manager Sarah Fordyce and Early Childhood Intervention Australia (ECIA) executive office Lauren Matthews outlined what advocates need to do to ensure the rights of their clients are upheld during this transition to the NDIS.
With one of the first trial sites operating in the Barwon region, in Victoria’s south-west, Ms Fordyce said there was good anecdotal evidence of people in that trial getting good support packages, some for the first time.
Ms Fordyce said that as the NDIS rolls out, it will remain important to make sure that disability stays on the agenda, as not everyone with a disability will be eligible for the NDIS, so politicians need to be kept engaged with the needs of those not eligible.
“We need to work together to keep the pressure on governments to fund the second tier, for those people who are not eligible for the NDIS,” Ms Fordyce said.
“The NDIS doesn’t solve everything for disability.”
Lauren Matthews said it was important for disability agencies and advocates to stay informed and develop strong evidence bases to deliver powerful advocacy and good results for vulnerable people with disabilities.
She said it was through developing a strong evidence base that early childhood services was one of the few service areas able to achieve a much higher price for services through the NDIS.
In Victoria early intervention childhood places were previously funded for about $7,385, and under the NDIS they are funded at a $16,000 benchmark.
“For us that’s incredibly exciting that for those children who require more services, we were able to get more funding for that and it’s certainly an example of powerful advocacy between our organisation and colleagues and the other peak bodies and the Victorian Government as well,” Ms Matthews said.
“It also helped that we had a significant body of evidence that we were able to use to influence those policy decisions.”
Ms Matthews says there is a great need for advocacy in the NDIS process, especially with the focus it places on self-referral.
She said it was important to advocate and help people understand and navigate the system, so that it was not just those who are confident in advocating for themselves who receive the assistance they need.
“It’s really about making sure no one misses out or falls through the cracks,” Ms Matthews said.
She said initially in the Barwon trial the ECIA noticed that there were lower than usual numbers of people presenting for assistance and referrals each month than there had been previously.
The ECIA responded by developing tools that encourage third party referrals to the NDIS, to ensure families are brought into the NDIS process at the same rate as previously.
“I think the complexity of the system is a real challenge in making sure no one falls through the cracks and I think that’s why we need a strong advocacy sector in the NDIS to be able to support people so they don’t get lost because the system is too hard to understand,” Ms Matthews said.
“They might not have high literacy levels, they may not speak English, they may be experiencing extreme poverty, so we need to make sure we have those safeguards in place so that nobody misses out.”
Ms Matthews said there was a common misconception that the NDIS was a panacea for everything people been looking for in the disability sector, when it it is really an insurance model, with the limitations that brings.
She said that it was also important to make sure that universal mainstream services continue to be challenged to remain inclusive, alongside the specialist services of the NDIS.
Disability advocates also need to ensure that NDIS providers deliver quality, accessible and sustainable services to clients.
And it is important that the sector prepares people to transition well to the NDIS and engage in critical conversations about what the NDIS is, how it works and how it will work well for people.
“It’s really about how are you ready for the NDIS and how are you getting the people you work with ready for the NDIS,” Ms Matthews said.
